Papyrus is holding several bags of groceries in his arms, some hanging by the handles hooked on them, others held up against his chest as he walks to the door to the house. When he finally reaches it he stares at the closed door for a long minute before looking at himself, realising that there's no way he can reach the key without dropping everything.

"SANS!" He calls, leaning against the door for his voice to travel further into their home. His brother should be on his day off, and you wouldn't be done with your shift for another hour or so, which meant he should be loafing around somewhere inside. "SANS ARE YOU IN THERE? COULD YOU OPEN THE DOOR? MY HANDS ARE A BIT OCCUPIED!" He shouts yet again.

Figuring his lazybones of a brother isn't going to bother getting up if he is inside, Papyrus sighs heavily. Carefully, he drops the bags one by one until he can finally move enough to get the door open. He takes a deep breath before picking the bags up again and walking inside, kicking the door closed behind him and setting everything down in the kitchen.

As he's putting everything away in its respective place, there's a loud crash from the living room. Turning his head with a raised brow ridge, the lanky skeleton puts the eggs he was holding in the cupboard before slowly making his way to the source of the ruckus. The sight of a blue jacket is enough to let him know who the cause actually was.

"HONESTLY SANS, YOU COULDN'T GET OUT OF BED TO OPEN THE DOOR?" He huffs in feigned annoyance.

As he gets closer however, Papyrus notices that Sans' posture isn't right. He's leaning against the wall, his legs trembling from the effort of holding himself up. His back is turned to him and his hood is pulled up so he can't see his older brother's face, but the way his shoulders are slumped as if they were too heavy for him to bear is concerning. Papyrus walks closer and puts a hand on the smaller skeleton's back and when he curls in on himself, as if his touch had burned him, he can't help the sense that something's certainly not right from sinking in.

"Sans… what's wrong?"

The wracking sob that leaves his brother is enough to wrap his soul in a painful vice. Sans slides against the wall, the energy to keep standing finally proving too much for him, and twists so that he's finally facing Papyrus. His expression couldn't be more pained, more miserably exhausted. It looked like his sockets were more sunken than they should be, the pupils inside so unbelievably dim they might as well not be there at all. His cheekbones seemed stained from what he could only assume had been tears and his usual grin was nowhere to be found, replaced by a strained grimace of pure torture.

"I can't find her… I've looked everywhere Paps…" Sans' voice sounds like he's being choked, it's weak and small, mirroring his body language as he attempts to hug himself, almost as if he fears he'll fall apart if he doesn't.

"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense." Papyrus tells him, reaching for his brother's face only to have him flinch away, hiding behind his hood.

"Star, I can't find her…"

"Shouldn't she be at Grillby's still?"

"Something happened. I lost her…" Sans brings his arms to his head, placing them behind his skull and resting his forehead on his knees. "She's still here but I can't feel her. I don't know where she is. It's like she's right in front of me but just out of reach. Oh god, Pap, it hurts so much. I feel so empty. I feel so useless…"

"Brother… You're… You're not useless…" Papyrus whispers.

He doesn't know what to do, which is baffling for him. He's the great Papyrus after all. He should be able to make Sans feel better. But he's never seen him like this. He was sad most of the time in the Underground, he could tell even behind all his bad jokes and his permanent grin, but it was never this bad. He supposed that was what a bond could do to someone. It could make a relationship so much more incredible and so much stronger. But whenever something happened to their soulmate it was so much worse, the pain was right in the centre of your being and it didn't go away with time. It only festered.

And when Papyrus looked more closely at his brother, he could see how much he had exerted himself. It seemed like even breathing was taking a toll on him. He had spent all his magic looking for you. Keeping his eyes open was becoming more and more difficult.

"I… I have to find her… I need her…"

The small skeleton gathers strength that his younger brother doesn't even know where he is getting it, with the alarmingly decrepit state he is in. He pushes himself to his feet, leaning against the wall for support, grunting with each movement that brought his energy closer and closer to being fully depleted. Papyrus steps away a little, mouth slightly ajar with a mix of admiration and worry.

"You can't go out like this, Sans. At this rate you'll get yourself killed!" The taller of the two warns, reaching out as the other's bones rattle with the effort it takes to move, a whimper of perhaps pain, perhaps fatigue, escaping him.

Sans pushes his arm away, stepping forward and past him. "I have… I have to… She's… I need to… I…" He mutters, unable to finish a single sentence, his thoughts clouded and broken. Dark spots start appearing in his vision and his feet begin to drag. "I need…"

Papyrus catches his brother just in time as he starts falling forward, his legs finally giving out and his body shutting down. Picking him up, he takes him to his bedroom, well now it's your bedroom too, he figures. He looks around for a few moments, noticing how much it's changed from your presence, how it's less messy but still has some dirty socks strewn across it despite your best efforts to tidy it up. He smiles softly at the thought before gently laying Sans down on the bed and pulling the covers over him, the smile dying down to a stern line of concern. His brother's face is scrunched up, tense from an agonizing ache that won't leave his soul since you disappeared. It's painful for him to see.

"Oh Sans… What happened?" He asks quietly. He said you were gone, that he couldn't find you. If that was the case then he would do anything he could to help search.

With one last glance, Papyrus exits the room and closes the door, careful not to make a single noise that would wake Sans. He needed all the rest he could get right now. And he needed every bit of support as well. The first thing the younger skeleton did was call Grillby to get any clues as to what happened. When the fire elemental told him you left in a hurry after a call from Sans, he was left just as confused as before if not more.

The next step was call your friends, to check if any of them had maybe seen you. When that of course proved useless as well he sits down in the living room, musing. He couldn't possibly leave his brother alone. Not when he's like this. His gaze drifts to the bedroom door down the hall. Sans said he looked everywhere and with his teleportation that could only mean he got to places not even Papyrus cold get to as easily. Which meant going out to look for you himself would probably be futile too. He rubs his temples, closing his eyes and thinking hard about what could have possibly happened and where you could've gone to, why you would've gone in the first place. He couldn't get any answers by himself. He sighs deeply, resigned. All he can do is wait.

Sans finds himself surrounded by a heavy and smothering darkness. He can hear nothing and see nothing beyond where he is, there is no light but for that of his pupils. The little white pinpricks dart from one side to another, as something starts making itself heard. He starts walking towards the noise, arms stretched out into the darkness, afraid of what might be ahead.

It was like a plethora of whispers, jumbled together in a confusing mess that made it nearly impossible to understand anything. They were low in the beginning, almost like he could think he was just imagining things, but with each step he takes, they seem to get louder and louder still. At one point he can even make out a few words on their own.

Freak.

Abomination.

Unnatural.

Useless.

Each one sends a sickening feeling through him, piercing through his soul like a bullet as they feel directed at him. But the last one is the worst of them all. And not only because he thinks it to be true with how no matter how hard he tries, how hard he looks, he simply can't find you, can't feel you anywhere. No that wasn't it. When everything else was spoken by an unknown voice, female, male, a child, what have it, that last one rang almost above all the others, clearer. It was your father's cruel and cold voice. He clenches his fists, anger sparking inside him over the feeling of worthlessness and the emptiness where you were supposed to be.

The whispers get unbearably loud when he stops dead in his tracks, a glowing figure standing out in the middle of the darkness. He immediately recognises you, sitting on the ground with your knees hugged to your chest in that same position you always adopt when things seem to be too overwhelming. Without a second thought, ignoring the whispers as they ring ever louder in his head the closer to you he gets, he runs to you. Your voice sounds over the whispers, so broken it hurts.

"Stop… Please stop…" You cry.

"Star!" Sans calls out, wanting to comfort you, to hold you in his arms and never let you go again.

At the sound of your name your head snaps up to look at him, the whispers silenced all at once, and he halts, still not by your side, falling backwards on the ground, the lights of his pupils all but disappearing. Your features are twisted, your eyes are pits as black as your surroundings and your mouth is a dark slit open from ear to ear in an unsettling smile. It's like the reflection from your nightmare from what seemed like so long ago, just before it sliced your neck open. Sans feels himself freeze up, his breath getting caught in his throat.

A shudder crawls down his spine when the whispers resume in unison. They're all calling out the same thing now and he can't seem to bring himself to move.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

He feels like every bone in his body is glued in its place and he can't move even if he wanted to. Like something out of a horror flick, he sees you (no, that's not you, that can't be you) start to crawl towards him. Not even his thoughts screaming at him to run, to leave this place (to wake up) are enough to snap him out of it.

Your movements aren't right. It's like you're a robot, your joints almost as if stuck, struggling to get from one position to another. It's not natural.

The terrifying mantra keeps on, relentless, sounding akin to the hissing of venomous snakes, echoing in his head with an ever growing sense of dread.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

You're almost at him and he still can't move a single inch. For a second he closes his eyes, trying not to look at the face that doesn't belong on your body, and when he opens them again he nearly screams out when it's right in front of his.

Out of the corner of his left eye he sees movement and, as if finally snapping to his senses, his arm instinctively moves to grab yours, which was reaching out to touch his face. His arm is trembling from something that he can only describe as horror, those lifeless pits of darkness staring straight at him. A little giggle sounds from this thing that isn't you no matter how familiar the soul inside it feels. The noise sends chills through him, so distracting that he doesn't notice your hand hovering above his chest. His left eye flares up when he feels a hand around his soul in a crushing grip. You squeeze it and he screams out in pain, sitting up in his bed, the choked cry still coming out of him in the real world.

He looks around at the darkness of his room, finding it empty but for himself, his bones rattling and his magic acting up, surrounding him in an angry blue aura, his arm stretched out to ward off threats that aren't there.

Papyrus runs inside just in time to see his brother pull his jacket's hood over his head, curling into a tiny ball, shaking with uncontrolled fear. He tells himself it was just a nightmare, over and over, trying to get the thoughts that are sparking in his head to settle. But that tug in his soul is something so real he can't ignore it. It feels like despair is enveloping it, and it's not just his. For a small moment he can feel you again. And you feel so lost and scared…

Sans didn't think it was possible to hurt more than he did before. He was clearly wrong. The nightmare felt too real for comfort and the crushed hope of feeling you even for a second only to lose you again just as quickly was enough to send an unbearable ache through his entire being. He wants nothing more than to be able to hold you tight, to settle that terror he felt and is still feeling himself. He wants all of this pain to stop, he wants all the recent events to never have happened. He rocks back and forth on his bed trying to stop his quivering but failing miserably.

Papyrus walks slowly towards the bed and sits on the very edge. The slight movement of his weight on the bed is enough to send the smaller skeleton into a panic, holding out his hand, his still unstable magic surrounding it. When his gaze focuses on his brother's face, Sans does his best to make it die down, the flame of his left eye still flickering when his thoughts go back to the feeling of your hand (no, not yours, you wouldn't do that, that wasn't you) crushing his soul.

Without uttering a word, Papyrus moves closer and looks him in the eyes, as if asking for permission. Sans doesn't say anything, only looks down at his hands, the hood sliding further down his head and leaving his expression completely shadowed. When he feels his younger brother's arms around his shaking frame, however, he brings his hands up to hold on to them.

"I'm here for you." Papyrus tells him quietly.

"I know." He replies, still feeling as weak and small as before.

The tall skeleton wants to ask what happened but he knows that now isn't the time. Right now all he can do is be the support that Sans needs. And how badly he needs it… He feels like he could crumble to dust if a breeze blew on him. He always felt better when he was near his brother and now was no exception, but his pain was so great it wasn't nearly enough to relieve him. He felt so weary and tired. A chunk of him was literally missing and he desperately needed it back. He needed to be close to you, to know that you were safe.

That little spark he felt after he woke from his nightmare only made matters worse. He knew that you weren't safe but he still didn't know what to do about it. He'd looked everywhere he could imagine you to be and there was no sign of you. He didn't know where else you could've gone. Hell, he still didn't know how you had even disappeared. And he was so tired he couldn't think straight.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't wrap his head around what happened. You fell. He saw you fall. You didn't make a sound, it was heart wrenching to see the despair in your eyes, how his fingers brushed against yours and how it wasn't anywhere near enough to save you. And yet you hadn't fallen to the ground. You fell but he doesn't know where to. At first he figured maybe you managed to use your magic to break the fall, but then where would you have gone? Why would you have gone anywhere at all but to him, to show him you were safe, that you weren't gone? And then why would he immediately have felt your loss? Even though you were technically still in his soul, still part of him, you were just… gone. You just… blinked out of existence…

He stops at that last thought and raises his head, holding his breath for a moment. He closes his eyes trying to make sense of what that meant. He was just so exhausted his mind wouldn't connect the pieces of the puzzle. He never felt so stupid…

Blinked out of existence. Why was that sticking with him? Why was it ringing so loud in his thoughts?

Think Sans, think. He tells himself. He can feel Papyrus' hold on him tighten as he stiffens slightly from the strain of trying to get his thoughts in a somewhat organised sequence.

"Don't go teleporting yourself out of here, brother."

His eyes shoot open. "What did you say?" Sans asks.

"I told you not to try and run away like you always do." Papyrus explains.

"No, no, no. What did you say? T-teleport myself? T-that's what you said." The small skeleton twists in his brother's arms and grabs him by the shoulders. "God damn it I'm an idiot Papyrus! A freakishly giant idiot!"

The younger one just sits there with confusion plastered all over his features as Sans starts cursing himself under his breath, stepping away and pacing around the bedroom and rubbing his skull furiously. It's obvious what happened now. He mentally hits himself over and again for not realising it right away. He's such an idiot. It should've been his first assumption, you have his magic inside you, for goodness' sake!

But as much as knowing that you teleported somewhere else was better than knowing nothing, it wasn't by a lot. He still didn't know where you went, just how you got there. He groans out of frustration. You were shot before you fell. Even if you didn't splat to the ground you were still bleeding, without a doubt. And with all of that established, it still doesn't explain why the hell he can't feel you!

Sans wants to scream. It's like with each step forward he takes three steps back. He hides his face in his hands and tries desperately to think, still walking back and forth in the room until his legs decide to fail him again and he falls to his knees. He holds on to the bedside table for support and accidentally opens the top drawer, causing it to crash to the floor scattering some of his belongings. He mutters some more curses before starting to pick everything up, coming across a piece of paper. Turning it over in his hands he sits down on the bed in a daze.

It's a poorly drawn picture of three people with the words 'don't forget' written on it. He rubs his neck apprehensively.

"I… There's somewhere I need to go, Pap…" Sans mumbles quietly. He looks at his brother and forces a small apologetic smile before disappearing in front of his eyes.

NOTE: I didn't check this for mistakes so if there are any bad ones be sure to tell me. Welp, I hope you liked that one, thank you so much for reading :) As always, any and all feedback is appreciated, so feel free to leave it